Focus on Arts and Ecology

The big environmental stories in the Chinese media (23 - 29 April) 

Villagers in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang went through a dramatic day on 23 April, when a Siberian tiger jumped on a woman and pounced on a car, injuring one and damaging the other, Beijing News reported. After evacuating the entire village of Linhu, Mishan, police officers anaesthetised and captured the big cat.
 
Feng Limin, China’s leading Siberian tiger expert, told Xinhua the cat is probably a member of the Sikhote-Alin population living across the Russian border, about 100 kilometres away from the village. The group is an estimated 500 plus strong, accounting for 90% of the Siberian tigers still roaming the wilderness.
 
The world's largest big cats are endangered but thanks to conservation efforts this century, their numbers are believed to have recovered from only about 40 in the 1940s. Most live on the Russian side. 
 
Feng argued that due to the saturation of the Sikhote-Alin habitat, tigers are migrating towards Heilongjiang for new space, encroaching into an area full of villages and farmlands. A system to educate and prepare the public is badly needed, Feng said.
 
The captured tiger was taken to the Hengdaohezi Felid Breeding Centre for 45 days of quarantine and medical observation. Its fate is still being debated. Leading conservationists interviewed by Xinhua argued it should be sent back to the wilderness as soon as possible. They anticipated some resistance from local residents after the 23 April episode but said long-term captivity is not the way to go. In stark contrast to the small population of Siberian tigers in the wild, China’s tiger farms now contain over 6,000 big cats. Conservationists told Xinhua that tiger farming is of “little conservation value” as farmed tigers don’t have the necessary skills to be reintroduced into the wild.

“Returning it to its natural habitat is the only meaningful way of protecting this species,” said He Xin, a researcher with the Shanghai Natural History Museum.
 
Read China Dialogue’s earlier article on joint efforts from China and Russia to set up a cross-border national park for Siberian tigers. 

(Sources: China Dialogue)